The developers of the Downtown grocery store have received preliminary approval for $2.5 million in New Markets Tax Credits from the New Mexico Finance Authority.

“All the parts and pieces are coming together,” Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry told Albuquerque Business First on Tuesday. “This is really a catalyst for Downtown.”

Project developer Paul Silverman and Gabriel Rivera of the city’s Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency presented their case to the NMFA on Friday, and have received preliminary approval for the tax credits, which work like a bond and will help with the construction of the new store.

“It’s a big step forward in the project,” said Paul Silverman of Geltmore Inc. on Tuesday.

Geltmore was awarded the city contract in January to develop vacant land on Silver Avenue into a grocery store. The plan is to build a 60,000-square-foot, four-story building with a 6,000-square-foot grocery store on the lower level.

The entire project is expected to cost $8 million.

“I look forward to the project starting and breaking ground as soon as possible,” Berry said. “A quality Downtown grocery store will bode well for the entire city.”

Silverman said it could take two months for final approval on the tax credits, and that would be about the time the city would transfer the 1-acre site to Geltmore.

“We’d like to see this thing under construction by the end of the summer,” he said. “We think there’s an absolute need to what we are proposing.”

Geltmore is marketing small retail spaces in the first floor of the building now.